Exotic big cats being let down in
In contrast to indigenous threatened species, exotic wild animals have no special protection under national law. Instead, provincial authorities make - and often fail to uphold - their own rules. By
Over the past few years, South Africa has committed itself to ending the canned hunting and captive breeding of lions. Some commercial breeders have defied the government’s directive, and the ban on breeding is still not a solution to the even more insidious problem of bone trade.
Despite the legal progress being made to protect South Africa’s indigenous big cats, the same is not true for those from other parts of the world, such as tigers. The legal distinction between indigenous and “exotic” animals means that even though many of the reasons to prohibit breeding are the same, the fight has to be won a second time.
The National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act classifies non-indigenous animals – “species imported into the republic as a result of human activity” – as “exotic”.
Bool Smuts is the director of the Landmark Foundation, a conservation NGO that gives input on government legislation and also litigates against administrators and individuals who contravene the few protections that wildlife species do have. He explains that indigenous species have a special designation within the law. They are referred to as threatened or protected species and are given several layers of protection under national law.
But provincial ordinances determine the regulations for exotic animals, which are not given that special protection.
These animals can essentially be owned as property, and this drastically changes the way they can be handled.
“Once you own something, you can kill it. That’s the nature of the South African legislation,” Smuts says.
“South African law was inherited from Roman times; that’s why it’s called RomanDutch law. Wealthy Romans wanted to protect their property from the proletariat, and that’s what led to the development of what is now ‘common law’ – the law that’s built up by precedent. And, of course, who can go to court? The wealthy. So, generally speaking, it’s the wealthy [who set] the precedent.
“So that’s why, to this day, your dog is an item of property. There are lots of people agitating for rights of nature – better laws for animals or non-human living things like rivers, because now in South Africa, animals and natural features have no rights.